Fear of the dark

There are a great many things in life that do not make sense to me. Most of them have to do with a thing that I see in others that I do not see in myself. Fear due to being surrounded by a lack of light is one of those things.

I do not understand this. Nearly half of the world is covered with it at any one point in time. It's mentioned or shown just about everywhere in books, movies,television shows, and songs. Why are so many people afraid of the dark?

For most people, it seems that fear of the dark is really a fear of not knowing what is out there. Or in other words, when we can not see what is happening we invent or imagine things to fill in the gaps. We superimpose our thoughts onto reality, literally taking something that is inside our head and planting it firmly within the darkness. People that do this are using their imagination in an unhealthy deconstructive way.

It seems to me that positive rational thinking people, that deal honestly and logically with the world would not have any reason to imagine monsters of any sort in either the light or the dark. Maybe I am wrong, perhaps there is no connection.
But I am not afraid of the dark. Or of the things that go bump in the night. I prefer darkness. Here in Florida, due to the heat, nighttime is often the only time where being outside is even remotely bearable, especially in summer.

I enjoy sitting alone outside, after sunset, feeling the air around me begin to cool, surrounded in a cloak of darkness, silently listening to the cries of birds, the buzzing of insects and other animal sounds, watching people scurry along, hurrying to be indoors. The darkness is a welcome home and a familiar friend. For me, it is comforting, relaxing and peaceful in a way that day time can never be.

I have been alone in the dark, in enough different places throughout my life that if there were monsters hiding there, somewhere, I think I would have seen them. Darkness is the natural condition just about everywhere that the light of the sun is not currently shining. Yet we treat the darkness as unnatural. It is true that there are dangerous things in the darkness, but no more so than there are in the full light of day. If we do not fear the light we should not fear the dark, for one is simply a lack of the other.

My son who just turned three is not afraid of the dark either. In fact, late in the evening he will often turn the lights out so that we can play with his toys in the dark. Studies show that between two and six is often when this fear begins due to a drastic increase in the use of the imagination that occurs in this time frame. I will observe carefully to see if this happens with him, though I have a suspicion that it will not. It is not in my nature to be afraid in general and from what I have seen so far, I think it may not be in his either.